By Damion S. Jones, Ph.D., SPHR, Global Director of Inclusion & Diversity, Monsanto
It can often be perceived as challenging for a business-to-business company to take inclusion seriously through a commercial lens. The potential for this lack of focus is particularly high in U.S.-based agricultural companies where the broader market of growers isn’t as diverse as the country’s consumer product citizenship. In fact, while Blacks and African-Americans are 12 percent of the U.S. population of consumers, they are only 1.4 percent of the total farm operators in the US per the last agricultural census conducted in 2012. This represented 46,582 Black or African-American farm operators. However, upon investigation into this customer base, we found many of the issues facing Black growers existed in areas we as a company could positively impact.
Between 2006 and 2008 Monsanto began working to strengthen the relationship between 1890s Land-Grant universities and Black growers. Dr. Dewayne Goldmon, then our Product Development and Marketing Manager, led the efforts to establish a Black Grower Advisory Council to advise the company on the unique concerns of Black farmers. Additionally, Monsanto helped the council to develop and implement an Agricultural Apprenticeship program, which provides a unique hands-on farm experience to select students from these land grant institutions to help prepare them for future agricultural careers. This was to gain access to viable talent and better understand the needs of Black growers. Historically, the challenges facing Black growers have hinged on: lack of access to land, lack of access to technology and a lack of voice on Capitol Hill. In exchange for their perspective, we provided these growers access to new technologies via field trials and candid information on marketing programs. In 2008, a two-day planning event was conducted as the group formed, and Monsanto’s Africans & African-Americans in Monsanto group (AAIM) helped to form bonds with the growers.
